The research program is designed to increase research training capability and experimental productivity in the Natural Sciences Division at Dillard. Three individual research problems involving three (3) faculty members and eleven (11) students will be studied as follows: (1) Water Balance in the American Cockroach - a project designed to determine how the frontal ganglion keeps the body fluids of the cockroach in a homeostatic state; (2) Skin Testing Program - to develop an antigen useful in skin testing to study the epidemiology of Sporothrix schenckii, and to isolate spores from soil to study the ecology of the fungus; and (3) Characterization of Corneal Mucoproteins - to extract and fractionate corneal acidic polysaccharides, chondroitin-4-sulfate and keratan sulfate and ascertain the hydration of each fraction.